Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Bridge Match 3 - Board 44

Board 44 - Dealer West - NS Vul

Opponents convention card: Jack
Opponents playing strength: Advanced

My hand: ♠ A ♥ T 8 6 4 ♦ Q 6 ♣ K Q J 6 3 2

East opens 1 club in third seat. It is alerted because it could be short. Given that I have a nice 6 card suit I'm betting it is! 2 clubs would show the majors, so I'm not sure I have a good bid? This would be a fine hand for RAPTOR! Maybe? I don't know if it can show clubs when they open a potentially short club. I think my best bet to get across my hand is to jump to 3 clubs. That should be preemptive I would think, and I do have a hand better than a preempt opener. I'm worried Jack will misinterpret this bid, but what can you do? He'll surely misinterpret any other option! 3 clubs gets passed out, so I guess not!

West leads the T of clubs.

NORTH♠ K J T 4♥ J♦ T 9 5 4 3 2♣ 8 7

WEST♣T

SOUTH♠ A♥ T 8 6 4♦ Q 6♣ K Q J 6 3 2

West

North

East

South

Pass

Pass

1♣1

3♣

Pass

Pass

Pass

1Could be short

Interesting. I have a club loser, 4 heart losers, and 2 diamond losers. I have no entries to board so even if I could establish the long diamonds I have no way to reach them. I could ruff a heart, but not if they draw the trump off board which looks to be their plan. I can't even use dummy's K of spades since I have no way to get to it unless the opponents do it for me. I guess I need to give them that chance. I win the first club trick (why didn't East take his A?) cash the A of spades, and then run out a heart. 4-5-J-Q. East draws more trump and West shows out. So East started with Axxx in clubs. This hand is going swimmingly.

What can I do now? If I have to lead clubs I will lose 2 of them (East has A7 left to my K6). I guess I have plenty of exits... The rest of my hand! I can't even try to run East out of exits to make him lead a spade to me since I have no winners to cash! I decide to throw out a diamond since those are sure losers. (I might be able to score my T of hearts if I don't lead them.) East wins with the J and draws 1 round of trump for me. He then cashes the A of hearts and plays a low one.

The K and 9 are outstanding. So I need to make a guess here. If East has the 9 and I play the 8 I gain a trick. If East has the K and I play the T I gain a trick. If East has both then it doesn't matter which I play. If West has both it doesn't matter which I play. Do I have any reason to expect one of them to have one or the other of these? Well, East has already shown up with 11 points, and they have 23 left between them. But with 9 points left in diamonds and spades it isn't like I can play the points in either hand. They both should have some of the remaining points. If East had AKQ3 would he really run out the 3 on the 3rd round? I decide no. So I play the 8. West wins the 9. Then he cashes the K so it really didn't matter. West then returns a spade for me. I win it and all the trump in my hand. Down 2.

NORTH♠ K J T 4♥ J♦ T 9 5 4 3 2♣ 8 7

WEST♠ 9 8 6 2♥ K 9 7 5♦ A K 8 7♣ T

EAST♠ Q 7 5 3♥ A Q 3 2♦ J♣ A 9 5 4

SOUTH♠ A♥ T 8 6 4♦ Q 6♣ K Q J 6 3 2

Every other table played hearts from the other side, with 6 of them going down. The last table made 3 hearts which is still better than our vulnerable down 2. So we get another flat bottom. We're on quite the downward spiral!

Jack wants me to pass. He also wants me to play the T of hearts when I have that choice. I tried passing and the opponents end up bidding their way to 4 hearts where we put them down 2. Which would have been worth 8 MPs in the 7 way tie for first. Though I will point out that we get to the same score if partner opens his hand the way he should with a 2 diamond preempt!